Why Are Different Chemo Drugs Used on Different Cancers?
Cancer comes in all shapes, sizes, and locations. It can affect the cells of a bone, of bone marrow, of the lungs or even the brain. There is no one type of cancer cell because they all start in different places. Cancer cells are caused by a mutation in the DNA of a healthy cell. When the cell goes to divide and then create new cells of the same type, the new cell has mutant DNA and something got lost in the steps. One of the most common things that gets lost is the DNA that tells the cell how often to divide and create new cells. As a result, these mutant cells, regardless of their location, will divide at whatever pace they want. Typically, they divide much too quickly and so become fast growing tumors. While the process for forming any cancer has to do with a gene mutation, the mutation is different in any location. In addition, the cause of the original mutation is different depending on the location. And while every cancer cell involves some rapidly dividing cells that form a tumo
